Migrant help

If Angela Innes (Letters, 19 June) wants to help desperate people she does not need to go as far as the Mediterranean for people needing help.

I popped down town yesterday and walking along George Street I saw a number of beggars, some looking fairly desperate; returning along Princes Street there were probably slightly more than on George Street.

I then went to the St James Centre where a number of groups of young men who appeared to be NEETs were hanging out with no apparent particular place to go.

Walking home up the Bridges I passed the number 37 bus which was delayed by a shelpit creature who was trying to raise £1.50 from passers-by or passengers so that he could get on said number 37 bus. He could not and did not.

At a pharmacy further towards the Southside a couple of ashen-faced young men were gaining access via a side door, for a methadone fix, I assume. And then next to Sainsbury another desperate beggar.

I am not sure why those crossing the Med illegally want to come to Europe, but I fail to see how the life chances of the desperate people I saw yesterday will be improved by the mass arrival of immigrants who will become competition for jobs, charity and accommodation.

Benedict Bate

South Clerk Street

Edinburgh

Angela Innes, in response to an anti-immigrant letter from Dan Arnott, accuses him and society of being selfish. Britain is already the biggest contributor to foreign aid.

Our health service, welfare, housing, education and other infrastructure are already under inordinate pressures so where will the money come from for another 100,000, 200,000 or more immigrants, then later their relatives, who see Britain as the land flowing with milk, honey, housing and welfare?

A YouGov survey found that the majority of Britons believe that refugees should not be welcomed to the UK. Denmark’s political campaigns are increasingly focused on the impact of immigration on their welfare system and Hungary is building a 4m-high fence along the border with Serbia to stop the flow of migrants.

Those who would welcome refugees should sponsor a refugee family who would live with the sponsor and receive no British benefits and, no, Ms Innes, I am not being rhetorical. This would silence the pro-immigration and refugee lobbyists.